Cabinet Opens Minor Cross-Strait Transportation Link to All Travelers

Taipei, June 20, 2008 (CENS)--The Executive Yuan (the Cabinet) resolved yesterday (June 19) to allow all Taiwanese people and foreigners to travel to mainland China via the offshore islands of Kinmen and Matsu, effective immediately.

As a result, travelers can first fly to the offshore islands from Taiwan and then take ferry boasts to the Chinese ports of Xiamen and Mawei, an arrangement known as the minor direct cross-Taiwan Strait transportation link, which had been open only to residents of the two islands and Taiwanese working at Taiwanese-invested enterprises in China, as well as their relatives, until now.

The Cabinet-level Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) estimated that the new arrangement will boost the traffic for the travel route by 10,000 persons a month. Premier Liu Chao-shiuan pointed out that the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) will subsequently put forward a medium- and long-term development plan for the two islands within three months.

Chen Tien-chi, CEPD chairman, noted that the CEPD has preliminarily planned to develop knowledge-based service industry featuring high added value in the two islands, such as medical care industry which can also service Chinese people nearby.

Lai Hsin-yuan, MAC chairperson, remarked that the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) will talk with the Association of Relations Across the Taiwan Straits for lifting the restrictions on the minor transportation link, so as to rectify the existing gross imbalanced traffic for the route. Currently, 300,000 Taiwanese travel to the mainland via the route annually, compared with 37,000 mainland Chinese traveling to the islands. Meanwhile, much more Chinese goods are being shipped to the two islands via the route than vice versa, as the Chinese government imposes a ceiling of US$100,000 for a lot of Taiwanese goods shipped to the mainland via the route.

To further the development of the two islands, Chao Erh-chung, a legislator from Matsu, urged the government to allow mainland Chinese travelers to visit Taiwan via transiting the two islands. Chen Fu-hai, legislator from Kinmen, requested the government to help with the formation of the Kinmen-Xiamen life cycle, so as to solve Kinmen's power and water shortage.